Michigan

That DVD from the library may be harder to get under new rules

WEST MICHIGAN - Attention West Michigan library patrons: That item you're looking to check out might soon be out of reach -- or more difficult to get.

The Lakeland Library Cooperative's board of directors voted Wednesday to prohibit patrons from placing holds on audiovisual materials -- DVDs, CDs, books on tape -- at libraries other than their "home" library, starting June 28.

Holds still can be placed on books at other libraries, but not those less than 6 months old. Wait times could also get longer: As of June 1, libraries with lower transfer volumes will go from delivery five days a week to three.

Cooperative director Sandra Wilson said the reason for the changes is financial. LLC's state aid was cut by 40 percent last year, about $110,000.

"We've been struggling for months with how to reduce 40 percent from our budget," she said. "Everything pointed to: We have to reduce the volume of delivery."

Patrons may still drive to other libraries and check out audiovisual materials and new books, if they are on the shelves, Wilson said. And LLC libraries that are part of a state-wide catalogue called the Michigan Electronic Library, or MelCAT, still can place holds on some 26 million items in almost 400 libraries and have them delivered to their home library.

"Hopefully, citizens will call their legislators and the money will be restored," Wilson said. "We don't like this either."

Marcia Warner, director of the Grand Rapids Public Library, said the changes will have a greater impact on her patrons. When the changes take effect June 28, city library patrons will be limited to placing holds on all items only at its eight member branches, through its online catalog or through the MelCat catalog, she said.

"I think it will be a huge impact on the patrons who almost always just use another library but not their own," Warner said.

She said the number of patrons affected might seem small -- 3,000 to 4,000 -- but it will be a huge change for them.

Why Grand Rapids is being affected more: It's the only cooperative member that does not identify patrons by a "home" branch -- the community where they pay property taxes -- because all branches are in the same community. And Grand Rapids uses a different electronic library catalog that the other cooperative libraries, a breakaway from the Lakeland system in 2008 made as a cost-saving measure.

On Oct. 1, cooperative member libraries also will be able to set borrowing limits for patrons outside their system. Grand Rapids Public Library will not set limits for patrons outside its system, spokeswoman Kristen Krueger-Corrado said.

Dennis Martin, director of the Howard Miller Public Library in Zeeland, said it shares a lot of materials with Herrick District Library in Holland, and patrons of both systems often go from one to the other.

"We've been so fluid in our interaction," Martin said. "People don't realize we're supported by an entirely different group of taxpayers."

Martin called the Lakeland cooperative an example of intergovernmental cooperation.

"It's hard for us all," he said. "For 30 years, the cooperative has been focused on sharing more, and how do we better serve the entire West Michigan area. Now, it's almost like we're having to retreat. But we're having to get by with less, and that means we have to offer less."